Stating the obvious: Seniors are safer drivers than teenagers

There is no surprise here. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the safest drivers on the road are in the age group between 64 and 69 years old. A study conducted by the two government agencies shows that teenage drivers are the most dangerous drivers on the road – especially male drivers.

“In every motorized country around the world, teenage drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes,” said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Institute. “The seriousness of this problem has been recognized for decades. Only in the last few years have public policies such as graduated driving licenses been enacted to address the situation. And those laws seem to be working, but fatalities are still high.”

In 2008, 2,739 teenage-drivers between the ages of 15 to 20 were killed and an additional 228,000 were injured. However, the good news is that the number is down 27 percent since 1998 and driver fatalities for the age group also decreased by 20 percent in the same time period.